Guide

California dealer license cost breakdown

Nobody honest publishes one all-in number, because the biggest single cost — your bond premium — is priced on your credit. What we can do is list every line on the bill, say who sets it, and give realistic totals. Figures from us are planned launch pricing; state and third-party figures are estimates and are labelled as such — the state revises its fees, and sureties price individually.

Our side of the bill (planned launch pricing)

Pre-license course — $125. The required 6 hours, from us, when DMV approval issues. (Renewal CE later is $39 every two years.)
Template Kit — $50, optional. Your full application packet completed from one profile. Credited toward guided setup if you upgrade.
Guided Setup — $1,499, or $1,999 with corporate/LLC filing, optional. The managed journey. Both tiers are plus government fees at cost — the state charges below are never marked up.
The bond referral — $0 from us. We construct your exact bond name string and refer you to a surety partner; the partner sells the bond. We are not the bond seller.

The state's and third parties' side (estimates)

DMV exam — $16 per attempt. Up to three attempts, a week apart (a fact, from the exam rules — budget for one).
DMV application, license, and plate fees — estimate: a few hundred dollars across the application. Set by the state; check the current schedule when you file.
The $50,000 bond premium — estimate: from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per year. The bond's face amount is $50,000; you pay an annual premium, priced by the surety on your credit. This is the swing factor in every total. (Wholesale-only dealers in the under-25-vehicles-a-year tier post a $10,000 bond instead, with a correspondingly smaller premium.)
Live Scan — estimate: roughly $50–$90 per owner, between the government fingerprint fees and the location's rolling fee.
Entity filing — corporations ≈ $125 and LLCs ≈ $90 in total state filing fees (articles plus the Statement of Information cycle), then the $800/year California franchise tax for corporations and LLCs. Sole proprietors skip the entity layer entirely.
DBA (fictitious business name) — estimate: tens of dollars for the county filing, plus the legally required newspaper publication, which varies by paper.
Seller's permit — no state fee in most cases (CDTFA may require a security deposit in some cases). City business license fees vary by city.
Premises — the real variable. Lease deposit and rent, signage, and lot preparation dwarf everything above for retail dealers, and depend entirely on your market. No guide can total that for you; budget it locally.

Realistic totals (before rent and inventory)

Do-it-yourself path

Course $125 + exam $16 + DMV fees + Live Scan + DBA + bond premium. With a mid-range bond premium, most applicants land roughly in the $1,000–$3,500 band before premises costs — the bond premium and your entity choice move you within it.

With help

Add the $50 kit, or guided setup at $1,499 / $1,999, and the same state costs apply on top. What the help buys is not the fees — everyone pays those — it is not paying them twice: no rejected packets, no re-filed DBA, no second Live Scan trip.

Ongoing, budget for: the bond premium every year, the $800 franchise tax if you formed an entity, license renewal every two years with $39 CE, and your DBA's five-year renewal. The renewal guide maps every recurring clock.

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